A-004
Aseet-ID:'''004 Containment Designation: Noctis Threat Classification: DIM-05 '''Containment of Insurgency: At present, there is no way to anticipate when or where A-004 can be accessed. There is no consistent pattern associated with where access to its location A-004-1 will open, with the only commonality being some level of privacy or seclusion at the location. Insurgency assets, including ADF forces are to be on passive watch for and continue to actively seek out new A-004-1 instances and deploy coverups as necessary. Most elements of the anomalous terrorist group 'Wild Circle' remain at large. Manhunts are ongoing. Overview: A-004 is a spherical pocket dimension several hundred meters in diameter. Its internal space is bisected by ground and centers on a large, ornate fountain 3m tall by 9m wide, surrounded by a circular plaza laid with intricately-carved flagstone and decorated with a handful of benches. The floorspace is split by six pathsEach path appears to correspond to one A-004-1 instance, meaning only six portals to the area can be active at once. into six sectors of coniferous and deciduous forest, each resembling a forest biome present in each of Earth's six inhabited continents.North American broadleaf, South American rainforest, African savannah, Central European woods, Asian taiga, and Australian subtropical. The trees appear to be old-growth: tree ring analysis of stumps suggests an age of several centuries at a minimum. Conditions are always highly-foggy within the dimension, but there appears to be similar lighting to sunny days, and attempts at quadcopter survey EXPUNGED. The fountain itself is a two-tier design. Carvings along its outer rim depict vast amounts of mammalian life of seemingly every order, phylum, and family in an arboreal scene.Including species that are known to have gone extinct in the wild in the past millenium. Its first tier is similarly highly-carved, and the spout heads above it are designed after major families of herbivorous megafauna. The four spouts at the top are intricately-carved frontal views of major carnivorous megafauna. All have their mouths open and water flowing in spite of there being no visible tube mechanism. The main anomalous quality of A-004 manifests when a human individual enters the one-meter deep base fountain pool and bathes in it for a prolonged period. The feeling of being in the water is reported to be very blissful and pleasant, not unlike the effects of certain hallucinogenic drugs. Subjects tend to lose time perception for a period lasting several minutes. Those consciously intending to keep track of their time spent find it extremely difficult due to an effect described as a mental 'clouding'. In general, a subject must bathe in the waters for at least 5 consecutive minutes before A-004's process begins. This is regarded as cognitohazardous by A-004 researchers, but reclassification of its Threat Level has been denied so far. Once the process has commenced, there is no way to reverse it even by evacuating the fountain pool. The subject will immediately report a tingling sensation around the extremities, and starting from there their body will slowly begin to reshape itself into a form mixed between that of their original and the land mammal they most recently came into physical contact with. This involves the hands and feet changing shape, musculature density adjustments, bone length changes, skin follicles multiplying, etc. The most dramatic adjustments are usually to the head: the shape of the skull will rearrange to the target mammal's as much as possible without affecting the subject's brain, leaving the eyes mostly intact but significantly deforming the maxillofacial region and ears. The posture of the legs and other qualities may also change depending on the target mammal's anatomical details. The mental effects of the fountain water tend to grow in intensity to the point that most introduced to it do not notice these changes until they finally exit the pool. Testing has revealed that the cognitohazard tends to cause unconsciousness, then wear off. This incentivizes subjects to evacuate the pool in most cases. Prolonged stays have no additional effect: up to 3 days have been attempted with Zeta subjects with no apparent effects. Transformed subjects' DNA is not heavily affected, but can easily be falsified as either animal or human with the right expertise. Value assessment: The existence of this item has significant implications for CI research and practical uses. It suggests dimensional manipulation capacity may have existed centuries or perhaps millennia ago, or that the collective unconscious may affect the universe in some fashion unheard of previously. As a practical instrument, it may be used as a transmogrification mechanism of dubious effectiveness. Studying the capacities and anatomy of changed individuals may have some scientific return as well. Category:Assets Category:Noctic